1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to interactive voting using a computer network and more particularly to a system and method for facilitating high-density interactive voting (such as during a live event) using a computer network and providing voting results in real-time.
2. Related Art
Real-time polls using interactive voting over a computer network are popular for determining audience response to a particular survey question. Usually the real-time poll is conducted in connection with a live event such as a television or radio broadcast. The real-time poll and associated survey question typically coincides with a featured story being presented during the live event. Real-time polls using interactive voting are especially popular with live events such as television news magazine programs because such polls make television programs more interactive and give viewers an opportunity to voice their opinions in real time. In general, interactive voting involves presenting survey question and a number of responses to a voter (usually a member of the live event audience), determining a voter's response, and tabulating and presenting voting results. Real-time polls using interactive voting are becoming more pervasive due to the convergence of the television and the computer. Although the technology is available so that the voter can directly interact and vote using the television, the most common way for the voter to interactively respond to a survey question is by the voter using a computer connected to a computer network (such as the Internet).
By way of example, a sponsor of the live event (such as a television news magazine program) may conduct a real-time poll by posing a survey question to its audience, presenting a number of responses and asking the audience to vote on the survey question by visiting the sponsor's web site. The voter uses her computer to visit the sponsor's web site and selects a response to the survey question by clicking on one of the options. When the voter has finished voting she submits the response to the web site and the vote is transmitted from the user's computer to the web server at the sponsor's site. The web server receives the voter's vote, adds the vote to other votes received and tabulates the voting results. The voting results are posted as part of the story for the voter to observe how other people voted in comparison to her own vote. Because the television or radio broadcast is usually live (hence the phrase “live event”) it is desirable for the sponsor to be able to conduct the entire real-time poll within the time constraints of the live event (typically one-hour in duration).
One interactive voting system and method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,833 (Ser. No. 09/064,567) by West et al. entitled “System and Method for Interactive Online Voting”. This patent describes a database system for tracking votes cast by voters in response to an interactive poll and returning voting results. The voters cast votes by over a network (such as the Internet) and the voting results are returned to the voters. In general, a voter visits a web site containing the survey question and submits their vote to the web site. When the vote is submitted, the voting system opens a web page (such as an Active Server Page) that receives the vote and then transmits the vote to a database. The web page opens a connection to the database each time a voter submits a vote and then closes the connection. One problem with this type of interactive voting system, however, is that it was not designed to handle large volumes of votes within a short period of time (i.e., high-density voting). For example, this system typically can handle only about six votes per second, mainly because the database connections must be opened and closed each time a vote is submitted. This repeated opening and closing of database connections imposes a heavy burden on the web site server when there are a large number of voters in a short amount of time. In addition, the server is often overwhelmed which cause a malfunction or even shutdown of the computer system (also known as “crashing”).
Accordingly, there exists a need for an interactive voting system and method using a computer network that is capable of handling high-density voting. What is also needed is a high-density interactive voting system and method that allows live television programs to be more interactive by allowing viewers of these television programs a chance to voice their opinions to a survey question and obtain the results in real time. What is further needed is a high-density interactive voting system and method that addresses the problem of repeated opening and closing of database connections whenever a large volume of votes is received in a short period of time.